AGT Computer Services LTD offers Office 365 Support for the Preston UK area. We offer repairs, service and managed plans that include business class support to our commercial clients.
Our business class support offers managed services, remote support and onsite help. We are set up to fully support and manage your IT needs with IT support contracts, IT Helpdesk and top-notch IT engineers. Our server team knows infrastructure, the cloud and supplies and installs servers, cabling and new network upgrades.
We also offer Cloud migrations to our clients, if you need to migrate your onsite Exchange server to Office 365, our team of talented technicians will migrate, setup and configure all your technology to work and we close each project with training.
Our IT support contracts ensure that your issues are resolved by our guaranteed service level agreements and by qualified technical engineers. We also can customize an IT Support package for your company.
Contact us today to find out how we can help! Call: 01253 808472
AGT Computer Services LTD offers Office 365 migrations for the Preston UK area. We offer repairs, service and managed plans that include business class support to our commercial clients.
Our business class support offers managed services, remote support and onsite help. We are set up to fully support and manage your IT needs with IT support contracts, IT Helpdesk and top-notch IT engineers. Our server team knows infrastructure, the cloud and supplies and installs servers, cabling and new network upgrades.
We also offer Cloud migrations to our clients, if you need to migrate your onsite Exchange server to Office 365, our team of talented technicians will migrate, setup and configure all your technology to work and we close each project with training.
Our IT support contracts ensure that your issues are resolved by our guaranteed service level agreements and by qualified technical engineers. We also can customize an IT Support package for your company.
Contact us today to find out how we can help! Call: 01253 808472
In May of 2018, the EU GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation, will come into force. Do you know what that means for your business, or for you personally?
Understanding What GDPR Is
Serving as a replacement for the Data Protection Act of 1998, the GDPR is coming into effect. This will apply to every organization that works with the data of any EU resident. As of May 25, 2018, you will need to know what this is if you process, manage, or store any personal data. This blog gives you more insight, but here is an overview of what the GDPR is about.
You must get consent for the data collection of everyone, plus have a comprehensive and clear privacy notice that will help people understand what it is they are having done.
Organizations must prove they received consent if they choose to process any personal data. If the person is under 13 years of age in the UK, or below 16 on other EU countries, then parental consent needs to also be given as well.
Data breaches of any type need to be reported to your local Supervisory Authority, or the Information Commissioner’s Office if you are within the UK, within the first 72 hours.
The term “Personal Data” is expanded, including online identifiers like IP address, can now be counted as a type of personal data.
The powers of the Supervisory Authorities is increased, allowing for the ability to enforce a higher financial penalty for those who suffer breaches or who do not comply.
When a severe case of non-compliance appears, the organization can be given a fine up to €20 million, or a total of 4% of annual turnover worldwide, whichever ends up being higher. For smaller breaches, organizations should be expecting a penalty of €10 million, or 2% of annual turnover.
The Effects of the GDPR on Small Businesses
There is the potential for the GDPR to have a significant impact for some small businesses. They will need to start taking steps to reach compliance quickly. This law applies to businesses of all sizes, including everything from a sole trader up to a multinational corporation.
While the GDPR was being developed, an important question arose about what companies were required to hire a DPO, or Data Protection Officer. Currently, regulations state that public authorities, any organization that performs “regular and systemic monitoring of individuals”, and any organization that performs “large-scale processing of special categories of data, such as health records” need to have a DPO hired.
There is currently no legal requirement for you to hire a DPO. However, the implication is there that nearly all companies that handle any type of personal data should have someone designated to cover GDPR compliance, no matter if that person is a formal DPO or not.
The Information Commissioner’s Office stresses that any company currently in compliance with the Data Protection Act of 1998 should not stress the new GDPR requirements. Instead, those changes should be considered an opportunity to review those requirements, allowing for a progression from old compliance levels, not a new beginning.
After this year’s attacks from multiple sources of ransomware, prove the need for businesses to put robust cybersecurity and antivirus measures in place. However, for those that did not, these new regulations give the will and opportunity to bring up compliance.
Brexit’s Effects from the GDPR
At the beginning, the GDPR will not have any affect on Brexit. As this new law comes into effect (May 25, 2018), the UK is still considered an EU member state, so that will require its compliance. Plus, the government of the UK confirmed that in October of 2016, it would implement the GDPR, whether or not Brexit was put into play. Whether or not those statements change once the UK is no longer part of the EU, will be seen when that time comes. However, for the time being, it makes sense to assume that nothing is set to change. No matter what happens, British companies that want to do any type of business with an EU partner after Brexit, will have to comply with similar GDPR protection standards to protect data.
Checklist for GDPR Compliance
Discussions about compliance must begin early within your organization. Not all aspects of compliance take the same amount of time, and some will cost more to put into place than others. Time is important for proper preparation.
You need to keep track of all personal data that you keep, whom you got the information from and who that information gets shared with. Systematic audits of current processes are a way to begin identifying any changes that you will need to make.
Go over your current privacy notices. Within the GDPR, you’ll need to discuss the legal basis for how you process your customer data, plus how you hold on to it. You also need to make sure the customers know what rights they have to change or alter what you do with it.
Your processes must be robust when it comes to getting rid of any data you have stored if anyone requests that you delete that data. Individuals must know they have this right as well.
Know that your data needs to remain portable. This allows people to request their commonly used data in a format that is easy for a machine to read, is given to them at no cost, and within 30 days of their request. You need to know how you plan to provide this information.
Look over how you gather, record, and process the data collection consent forms. Plus, you need to remember that consent needs to be provided explicitly. You cannot assume consent through checked off boxes on a form, as this could leave your organization in trouble.
Have a system in place to verify the ages of people giving consent, and make sure any privacy notices you have can be understood by all, including children.
Make sure your current reporting procedures for data breaches are reinforced, ensuring that your organization meets the newest timelines. Compliance failures may become much bigger issues with the GDPR than they currently are.
Taking proper steps to appoint your organization’s DPO, if required, will help, and if you do not need one, make sure you have someone in place to help with GDPR compliance.
As part of the GDPR you should secure your website from potential data breaches making sure all software is up to date and personal data encrypted. More info on secure GDPR compliant hosting
AGT Computer Services LTD offers the best in class business computer support for the Preston UK area. We offer repairs, service and managed plans that include business class support to our commercial clients.
Our business class support offers managed services, remote support and onsite help. We are set up to fully support and manage your IT needs with IT support contracts, IT Helpdesk and top-notch IT engineers. Our server team knows infrastructure, the cloud and supplies and installs servers, cabling and new network upgrades.
We also offer Cloud migrations to our clients, if you need to migrate your onsite Exchange server to Office 365, our team of talented technicians will migrate, setup and configure all your technology to work and we close each project with training.
Our IT support contracts ensure that your issues are resolved by our guaranteed service level agreements and by qualified technical engineers. We also can customize an IT Support package for your company.
Contact us today to find out how we can help! Call: 01253 808472
AGT Computer Services LTD offers the best IT support services for the Preston UK area. We offer repairs, service and managed plans that include business class support to our commercial clients.
Our business class support offers managed services, remote support and onsite help. We are set up to fully support and manage your IT needs with IT support contracts, IT Helpdesk and top-notch IT engineers. Our server team knows infrastructure, the cloud and supplies and installs servers, cabling and new network upgrades.
We also offer Cloud migrations to our clients, if you need to migrate your onsite Exchange server to Office 365, our team of talented technicians will migrate, setup and configure all your technology to work and we close each project with training.
Our IT support contracts ensure that your issues are resolved by our guaranteed service level agreements and by qualified technical engineers. We also can customize an IT Support package for your company.
Contact us today to find out how we can help! Call: 01253 808472
Here at AGT Computer Services LTD, we offer the finest in class IT technical support for the Preston area. We’re on hand 365 days of the year to provide repairs, service and managed plans including business-class IT support to our commercial clients.
True story: We’ve even handled and resolved client IT issues during Christmas turkey dinner
So what exactly does our business-class IT support include? Well, it includes managed services, remote IT support and onsite help. Our set up enables us to fully support and manage your IT needs with our handy (and rather brilliant) IT support contracts, IT Helpdesk and top-notch IT engineers. Our server team aren’t just experts, they know infrastructure, the cloud, supplies, server installs, cabling and new network upgrades like the back of their hands.
We also offer Cloud migrations to all our clients. If you need to migrate your onsite Exchange server to Office 365, our team of talented technicians will migrate, setup and configure all your technology to work perfectly and with a seamless transition, we then close each project with training for your team.
Our IT support contracts ensure that your issues are resolved quickly and easily, with minimal to zero downtime thanks to our guaranteed service level agreements and our qualified technical engineers (who are really nice guys too!).
Want something a little more bespoke to your needs? Great, we also can customise an IT Support package tailored to your company.
AGT Computer Services LTD offers the best in class IT technical support for the Preston UK area. We offer repairs, service and managed plans that include business-class support to our commercial clients.
Our business-class support offers managed services, remote support and onsite help. We are set up to fully support and manage your IT needs with IT support contracts, IT Helpdesk and top-notch IT engineers. Our server team knows infrastructure, the cloud and supplies and installs servers, cabling and new network upgrades.
We also offer Cloud migrations to our clients, if you need to migrate your onsite Exchange server to Office 365, our team of talented technicians will migrate, setup and configure all your technology to work and we close each project with training.
Our IT support contracts ensure that your issues are resolved by our guaranteed service level agreements and by qualified technical engineers. We also can customise an IT Support package for your company.
Spammers and malware authors use a myriad of ways in which to capture user email addresses, below are some of the ways this can happen:
Crawling the web for the @ sign – Spammers and cybercriminals use sophisticated tools to scan the web and harvest email addresses. If you publicly post your email address online (forums, Facebook etc), a spammer will find it. Another tactic employed by spammers to discover email addresses is to search common sources. They have robots scanning web pages and following links. These address harvesting bots work a lot like the search engines’ robots, only they’re not after the page content at all. Strings with ‘@’ somewhere in the middle and a top-level domain at the end are all the spammers are interested in. Spammers are not fussy either, the pages they are particularly keen to visit are web forums, chat rooms, and web-based interfaces to Usenet because lots of email addresses are likely to be found there.
Making good guesses… and lots of them – Cybercriminals use tools to generate common usernames and pair them with common domains. These tools are similar to the ones used to crack passwords.
Friends & Colleagues – Even if you know better than to publicly post your email address on the web, it could still be stored in the email inbox of anyone who’s ever emailed you or whom you’ve ever emailed. Cyber criminals can steal contact lists, compromise devices or use social engineering to trick people into giving them access.
Buying lists – Spammers can purchase lists legally and illegally. When you sign up for a website or a service, make sure you read the privacy policy carefully to find out what the site plans to do with your email address.
Dictionary Attack – Big free email providers like Outlook.com or Yahoo! Mail are a spammer’s paradise, at least when it comes to finding addresses. Millions of users share one common domain name, so you already know that (“hotmail.com” in the case of Hotmail). Try to sign up for a new account and you will discover that guessing an existing username is not difficult either. Most short and good names are taken. So, to find email addresses at a large ISP, it’s enough to combine the domain name with a random username. Chances are both “asdf1@hotmailcom” and “asdf2@hotmail.com” exist.
Worms using infected devices: To avoid being detected and filtered, spammers seek to send their emails from a distributed network of computers. To build such a distributed network of devices, spammers cooperate with virus authors who equip their worms with small programs that can send bulk emails. Additionally, these spam-sending engines will often scan the user’s address book, web cache, and files for email addresses. That’s another chance for spammers to catch your address, and this one is particularly difficult to avoid.
So, as you can see from the above, sometimes the spammer does not know the user’s exact email address and is simply shotgun mailing or, the email address has been scrapped from an infected device.
Received a suspicious email? – contact us immediately at our office on 01253 808 472 or email our support desk so we can investigate.
It’s now easier to change broadband providers thanks to new government rules. Anyone who has ever wanted to change their broadband provider understands how difficult and frustrating this process could be. Until just recently making this switch was so complicated and difficult for customers that many did not even bother. Providers certainly didn’t mind the fact that jumping through so many hoops completely discouraged even their most dissatisfied customers from finding a better deal elsewhere. The flip side of that coin was that providers wouldn’t be attracting much business away from their competitors either. This has changed thanks to the efforts of telecommunications and broadband regulator Ofcom. Starting in 2015, Ofcom was successful in working with the government to remove many of the obstacles that prevented consumers from having a true choice in the marketplace. They were able to eliminate the requirement for migration authorisation codes necessary to make the switch.
The 2015 rule change was a result of Ofcom’s consultation work in 2012. Through this work they were able to determine that the process for switching providers was so difficult on the consumer side, it in essence took the choice away from the consumer who wanted a better deal. The providers also could delay the transfer to the further frustrations of consumers. The solution, according to Ofcom, was to implement a single process. This new system, called “gaining provider led” ensures that it is now no longer the responsibility of the customer to contact their current provider to request switching.
Additionally, steps were put into place to protect providers against “slamming” where customers were misled into switching. The system helps protect against accidental switching, however this may occur, and makes sure provider/customer contracts are written more clearly in regards to what charges may be incurred when switching.
Have questions about how to switch to a new broadband provider? Give AGT Computers a ring. We would be happy to answer your questions about this or any other tech support, hardware or software issues. We help customers in Blackpool, Lancashire, Fylde, Lytham and surrounding areas with installation of new software, backups, repairs, upgrades and all the computing needs of both individuals and businesses. Cloud storage, cyber security and system upgrades are a part of our list of services too. We are a Microsoft Silver Partner for Small and Midmarket solutions and can work with you to meet all of your personal computer or company’s IT needs.
You’ve no doubt heard of the Black Market. It’s the illegal underground marketplace where goods are sold without any oversight, regulation and certainly no VAT. It’s a shadow economy where you may find a good deal on a device, but you may also get ripped off with no recourse. The Grey Market is a term used to describe a marketplace where goods are sold, many of them imports, that is legal, but they can be just as shady.
A wide variety of tech products, including computer hardware and smartphones, can be purchased through the Grey Market at bargain prices, but a what risk? Do these products even work? Is a high-end Chinese smartphone sold at an insanely low price an offer that is too good to be true. Is it worth finding out?
In the UK it can be difficult to purchase a name brand product like Sony or Samsung. Ordering online maybe the only option. Is is safe to do so? How comfortable are you purchasing an import by the name of Doogee or Gionee. For many, the Grey Market may be the only option. Of course suppliers in the UK would tell you not to patronize these markets, but they have a financial stake in this and they would prefer that you buy their products.
Here are a few things to be aware of when considering whether or not to make a purchase on an import:
Beware of Packing Tricks
Looks are deceiving. A brand new box may contain an old phone. Some of the components may be counterfeit as well. It’s a risk, especially when buying second hand goods: you don’t really know how many hands have been on them.
VAT fees
If you purchase computer hardware and the supplier has not paid VAT on it, you will be liable for those costs. You also run the risk of your new, inexpensive computer equipment being seized. Worse case scenario, you could be prosecuted.
No Tech Support, No Warranties
You can forget about the warm fuzzy feeling that comes with warranty protection. Even if your product does have a warranty, the supplier may not honor it if they think the equipment was obtained fraudulently. The same goes for free tech support. Having to pay for support or repairs on a nonfunctioning device may quickly cancel out any savings made in the initial purchase.
Don’t know who to trust for support and information on software and hardware products? You can trust AGT Computers. We would be happy to answer your questions about products, services tech support, or any hardware and software issues. We help customers in Blackpool, Lancashire, Fylde, Lytham and surrounding areas with installation of new software, backups, repairs, upgrades and all the computing needs of both individuals and businesses. Cloud storage, cyber security and system upgrades are a part of our list of services too. We are a Microsoft Silver Partner for Small and Midmarket solutions and can work with you to meet all of your personal computer or company’s IT needs.
It may have happened to you. You get a call from a person, perhaps with an accent. They say they are from Microsoft Tech Support and they inform you that your computer may be running slowly due to a virus on your hard drive. This may not set off any alarm bells. Maybe your computer has been running a bit slow lately and major companies around the world outsource their tech support to other countries. Why should Microsoft be any different?
The caller may direct you to check out certain files and applications on your computer. You’ll be alarmed to learn that, according to the information you are being told, you do have a virus, maybe more than one. This tech then tells you that for a one-time payment, perhaps £200, you can get warranty protection. You agree and from there you are instructed to download an application allowing a third party to gain control of your computer. You are asked to enter your banking information for payment, then you’ll be all set. The problem is, you should have hung up on this scammer 10 minutes ago.
The most important thing Microsoft users needs to keep in mind is Microsoft does not make unsolicited phone calls to help you fix your computer. Remember that and you will be prepared to crush the dreams of those evil scammers wherever they are calling from. You should never divulge personal information over the phone or agree to download software, but if you follow the first rule, you won’t need to worry about any of the rest. It’s also good practice to report these scams to Microsoft, which you can do here.
If you suspect that your computer has been infected with a virus, give AGT Computers a ring. We are real support techs who can help you with any of your computer-related problems. We provide updates, install new software, perform repairs and take care of all the computing needs of individuals and businesses including backups and upgrades. We serve the Blackpool, Lancashire, Fylde, Lytham and surrounding areas with cloud storage, cyber security and system upgrades. We are a Microsoft Silver Partner for Small and Midmarket solutions and can work with you to meet all of your personal computer or company’s IT needs.
